


Salve for the Body

by SonjaJade



Category: A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Genre: First Time, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:56:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21745633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: When Ebenezer Scrooge relates to his business partner the news of his failed engagement, Jacob Marley offers his insight on why Scrooge doesn't need a woman in the first place.
Relationships: Jacob Marley/Ebenezer Scrooge
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	Salve for the Body

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nochick_fics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nochick_fics/gifts).



> Happy Birthday nochick_fics!

“Who needs love?” Jacob Marley scoffed, placing coins in a neat stack of ten before going on to make a second stack. “It’s a ridiculous physiological response to an even more ridiculous stone age instinct to procreate!”

Ebenezer frowned at his partner. His fiance’ had just released him from their engagement and he hoped Jacob would have been more sympathetic to him in his time of pain. “You mean you’ve never felt an attraction to the fairer sex before?”

“No. Women are brainless in all matters apart from those of domesticity. Half of them can’t even raise a proper child these days. I’d find more attraction to my bed posts than I would a woman.”

“Even when the body signals against your convictions that there is an attraction?” Scrooge asked, looking pointedly at him.

Jacob raised his head. “Ebenezer, my body’s responses to desire are the same as any man’s. I certainly don’t need the assistance of a woman to settle them, however. I’m capable of quelling the urges on my own, though it disgusts me to admit I indulge in such activity.”

Scrooge’s eyes darted back to his own pile of coins, leaving the miserly young businessman to regret having brought the subject up at all. His focus was disturbed once again at the sound of Jacob’s chair moving across the floor. He rose and shut the door to their office and his partner whispered-

“Why would I let a foolish and untrained woman touch my manhood when I’m the master of that particular section of flesh? Don’t you think I know best how to please and satisfy it?”

Ebenezer cleared his throat as he felt the heat of embarrassment rising in his face. “But the brothels-”

“Ha! And the citizenry think _us_ the thieves and scoundrels of the city!” He stuck his hand out and wiggled his fingers. “My hand knows well enough what to do. Why should I pay a cut throat like that to do what I can do for free?” When he asked if Scrooge had ever taken the liberty of satisfying his own needs, the young man balked at the idea.

“I don’t wish to discuss such a private matter with you!”

“Well, you didn’t seem to have any trouble discussing it just a moment ago!”

Scrooge said no more on it, attempting to end the conversation there. But no, Jacob leaned in closely once more, his warm breath ghosting across Ebenezer’s ear-

“Join me for supper at my home. I could demonstrate the proper methods to help aid you, and then you’ll be troubled by your need for a woman no more.”

As if his suggestion wasn’t scandalous enough, Jacob Marley’s hand squeezed Ebenezer’s thigh… and Scrooge’s body _definitely_ responded to the sensation.

“Hmm, it appears at least part of you finds this to be a mutually beneficial suggestion.”

“It’s a sin for a man to lie with a man,” Scrooge hissed.

Marley chuckled. “I have no plans of lying with you, my friend. I’ve lain with no one and with no one shall I ever. However,” his hand inched higher up the length of Scrooge’s leg, until his fingertips brushed against the strained twill fabric shrouding that most insistent part of his anatomy, “sharing knowledge of physical relief, regardless of its nature, is what friends do, Ebenezer. Had you a headache, I’d share the recipe for a tonic to aid you. This is merely a therapeutic demonstration.” And with that he cupped the bulge forming in Scrooge’s lap before finally relenting in his advances and going back behind his desk.

Scrooge felt breathless. His heart seemed to be beating twice as fast as natural, and despite the cold there was the prickle of sweat along his spine and hairline.

“So, Mr. Scrooge. Shall I tell my servants to expect a guest for supper tonight? And to have a nip of brandy while we discuss… the ways of the world?”

Ebenezer couldn’t have said no, not when every strand of sinew in his body said yes. He nodded and Marley excused himself to run an errand to the bank, saying he would let the staff in his home know he’d be bringing a guest home later.

As soon as he left the office, Scrooge slumped back into his chair and simply let himself breathe. The clerk came to check on him, but he insisted everything was well, citing a stomach ache for his strange behavior.

“What have I gotten myself into?” he pondered to himself. He supposed only time would tell.


End file.
